TAE Technologies has closed a $150 million funding round with support from industry giants Google and Chevron.
Founded in 1998, TAE Technologies has spent over two decades chasing a bold vision: producing clean, affordable, and safe energy using nuclear fusion. Unlike conventional nuclear technologies, fusion promises virtually limitless power with minimal environmental impact. Alongside this mission, TAE is also innovating in smart power management and cancer treatment, highlighting the company’s broad scientific ambitions.
On June 2, TAE announced that its recent funding round surpassed the $150 million mark, exceeding its initial target. The company also confirmed it may raise additional capital within this round, bringing its total funding to over $1.3 billion since its inception.
“TAE’s technology uses the soundest physics to deliver superior performance in a compact machine, with attractive economics and best-in-class maintainability,” said Michl Binderbauer, CEO of TAE Technologies. “We are leading the charge to develop revolutionary fusion technology for full-scale commercial deployment.”
Binderbauer emphasized the urgency of scaling clean energy, citing the exponential rise in global power consumption driven by the increasing use of artificial intelligence and expanding data infrastructure.
Google, which first partnered with TAE in 2015, played a crucial role in applying artificial intelligence to optimize plasma performance. Ross Koningstein, Engineering Director Emeritus at Google Research, highlighted how their early collaboration led to significant design simplifications.
“Based partially on insights gained from our joint plasma reconstruction work, in 2023, TAE realized they could simplify their fusion machine… This was impressive because to make fusion power economically viable, it’s important to reduce complexity and cost,” said Koningstein. “We look forward to TAE’s continued progress with their distinctive pathway to fusion — one of our bets for a cleaner energy future.”
The company’s most recent breakthrough a simplified and efficient plasma formation method, was published in Nature Communications. It showcases a leaner fusion process that slashes both cost and complexity, accelerating the timeline toward commercially viable fusion energy.
Central to this progress is “Norm,” TAE’s latest fusion machine. Using only neutral beam injection (NBI), Norm generates hot, stable field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma. This approach has reduced the size and complexity of the system by up to 50%, proving not only technical viability but also economic competitiveness.
Norm’s success lays the foundation for TAE’s upcoming reactor prototype, “Copernicus,” a non-radioactive, hydrogen-boron-based reactor. Designed to reach temperatures approaching 1.8 billion degrees Fahrenheit, Copernicus represents the next critical step toward practical fusion power. The hydrogen-boron approach is particularly attractive due to its safety, sustainability, and abundance of fuel.
